Dor - A well made, well acted movie. Review on Dor

There is a basic level of quality that can be associated with NageshKukunoor’s movies, and I watch his movies for the same reason. Dor,does more, trying to say more than one thing as the story evolves. Itis the story of Meera and her loss, Zeenat and her struggle to avoid aloss, and also a story of how each one of them rediscovers themselves.

Twopeople who work in Saudi happen to be roommates, and one dies and theblame for that falls on the other, and he is sentenced to death. TheSaudi Law says that if the widow of the dead pardons the murderer, hewould be spared from death. This is the premise our two protoganistsare given with and we get to see how they deal with this situation.Given the basic premise, the director has worked hard to showdifferences between the two people, their attitude to life, the culturethey belong to, the land they live in. This difference adds moresubstance to the story, wherin the director tries to add his othersubtle messages. He has succeded largley.

Zeenat, coming toknow of the sentence given to her husband, travels to know the wife ofShankar, who is considered to be murdered by Zeenat’s husband. Thestory moves from the fertile Himachal Pradesh, to the dry Rajasthan.The movie gives us the time observe the difference in the terrain,unfolding in a slower pace. When she eventually finds out Meera’sfamily, with the help of Bahurupaiya, she is unwelcome and is notallowed to meet Meera. She gets to know that Meera comes to a templeonce a day and goes there to meet her. On seeing her, she is not ableto immediately tell the purpose of her visit, instead befriends Meera,and helps her come out of her grief. What happens when Meera comes toknow of the truth finally, form the climax of the movie, with a rathersudden twist in the end.

Ayesha Takia, as Meera, shows greatpromise, and is able to carry the weight of her character effortlessly.If bollywood allows, we can expect to see some great acting from her inthe future. I am sceptical about the quality of acting she will get todo, given the kind of movies that are made these days. But, to say theleast, it is one of the best acting performances I have seen.

ShreyasTalpade, in contrast to his previous mainstream role, comes as a smalltime con-man, who helps Zeenat find Meera. I read that he is a goodmimic, and here, he uses it effectively to come up with another greatperformance in the movie. He provides the lighter moments in the movie.

Gul Panang has a role where she should be assertive and atloss, at the same time. She has managed to do a good job too. Therelationship between her and Shreyas is portrayed nicely. The directorNagesh comes in a small role, but personally, I was not able to see himas the character. This might be because he does not fit as a bad guy,or I am more aware of his being the director of the movie, or he is notas good an actor. I hope the third is not true, as I remember a betterperformance in 3 Deewarein.

Music is one of the mainhighlights of the movie. Using human voices in is unadultratedform(with as less addition of instruments as possible), is a rarity inthese days of loud noise, but here the music director fuses inbrilliant voices, and traditional instruments amazingly into thenarrative.

Over all, the movie creats great impact and makesyou sit back and think. There are some cliche moments, like thedramatic climax, or the prop characters that signify the places chosen.These are minor issues. We can see the director growing as a filmmaker, his honest narration, getting more and more refined. I amlooking forward to seeing his future movies.